On Notice

WAR! AMERICA STRIKES BACK! BIN LADEN DECLARES WAR! All headlines in the media. And the world responds: THE EMMYS CANCELLED FOR A SECOND TIME, A DIRECTOR OF HOMELAND SECURITY, THE CIA SAYS THERE IS A 100% CHANCE OF TERRORISM IN THE U.S. More headlines that have drama at its core.

The creative world must be put on notice. Look around, feel, touch, taste, listen and you will find what humanity is all about. The world is changing rapidly and we need to view the response. My generation and even generation X is reacting to this world-changing event. But is generation XI thinking and responding the same? Do they see the true meaning of what is happening? I interact with this generation every day, at the University, conferences, and in my travels. Their response is quite different. This is a generation that is very different from past generations. Some have highly emotional responses, while others appear to not be affected by what is happening.

Last Friday I began teaching a course in directing as a guest professional at a school other than UCLA. They are students whose average age is 20 and whose dialogue on class breaks was about the club they were going to that night, or the movie they were going to rent from Blockbuster. My thoughts were on the country, on what was happening and of course on what it means to my family and me. I took the weekend to think about this and I realized that these kids have been dealing with constant change: change in their lives, in technology, in social consciousness, etc. They have been growing up knowing that if something is cool now, then it is not tomorrow. Maybe that’s why there appears to be no actor that can deliver the under-25 audiences and the films that bring the audiences of that age in are concept driven: ROAD TRIP, AMERICAN PIE 2 etc.

Will this audience, this age group be impacted by the drama that is affecting the world? Well some of them are. They are enlisting in the military, they are talking about their fears. And I am sure they are prompted by us and other generations to look around them and see why we live in an international world that is getting smaller. A world that is catching up to us every year, technologically, and economically. A world that in some fashion is linked to us by our thoughts and deeds.

We as creative people have an obligation to passionately get the message across. WEST WING did exactly that in their televised episode on 10/3. The White House was locked down for security reasons while a group of high school students were visiting. This premise gave the producers and Aaron Sorkin the basis to let the XI generation have their consciousness raised, gave them and us thought about the world, life, and the people in it. I felt part of that experience. It brought me closer to what drama and narrative should be and I, for one, was proud that I am part of our industry.